A gift from Mother Nature. Our pair of pileated woodpeckers made their return on Christmas Day. We were happy to see them again. They're not typically feeder birds but they have visited our suet feeders for the past 4 or 5 winters now. I read up on pileated woodpeckers and shared a few interesting facts in last year's blog post Winter Wildlife. You can read it HERE.

It's been snowing & blowing ever since Christmas with temperatures well below zero. The pileated woodpeckers, songbirds & "Big Boy" the squirrel have been coming in daily. Big Boy is a year-round resident. He costs us a small fortune in sunflower seed but his chunky-butt dare devil antics keep us amused. We set up a spot in the window for our old cat Bailey.  He sits there for hours, hunkered down just below the window ledge with his tail just a twitching. Bailey acts tough but I think the woodpecker and squirrel could take him!

We had so much fun creating this custom piece. The mermaid's starfish bikini top was made by fusing special fusible paper stars between two pieces of glass. Her tail and hair contain dichroic glass for extra shimmer. The sea turtle is a mix of spring green opaque & light aventurine green glass. The reclaimed wooden background was given a wash of color using acrylic paint mixed with glaze before adding dollar store glass beads in shades of blue. We found the starfish and sand dollar embellishments at the local craft store. Our mermaid made several trips in & out of the kiln before she was complete. We will definitely be making variations of this piece in the future. I think we need to try a few signs featuring our favorite characters... Pillywiggins!